As One Baltimore State House Seat is Filled, Another Opens

The faces representing Baltimore in Annapolis will be a bit different this year. Ahead of next month’s legislative session, Baltimore’s delegation picked up one members and saw another step down before the end of the year.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Friday that Robbyn Lewis was formally appointed to the House of Delegates. She will represent District 46 for Southeast Baltimore. The seat was vacated after Pete Hammen took a top job in Mayor Catherine Pugh’s administration. Lewis runs Sustainable City Solutions, and led an effort to give a Patterson Park alley a makeover that was chronicled by Baltimore Fishbowl’s Laurel Peltier.

Hogan will be making another appointment following Friday’s news that Del. Jill Carter is stepping down. The Baltimore Sun reports that Carter submitted a letter of resignation to the House speaker. A few hours later, Mayor Catherine Pugh announced that Carter will be leading Baltimore’s Office of Civil Rights and Wage Enforcement.

“She is a city resident whose legal and judicial background, as well as her legislative and community experiences will bode well for the agency,” Pugh said in a statement.

Pugh’s election as mayor also left a vacancy in a state senate seat representing West Baltimore. Hogan previously said that seat will be filled by Barbara Robinson. There hasn’t been word from the Democrats yet on who they will appoint to fill Robinson’s House seat.